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Topic: Cheap And Easy Shifter Play Mod (Read 427 times)

Yesterday, I was looking into clutch adjustments to try and improve my slippage. While looking in the repair manual, I discovered two adjustment points behind service covers on the front of the gear box. Oddly enough, my box has the service covers, but there is nothing behind them. I've also been suffering from poor shifting on The Blackhawk and I know it's because the ratchet mechanism is getting badly worn. I tried getting some play out of it before without luck, and I continue to get false neutrals and missed shifts. So while I had the inspection covers off yesterday, I decided to take another look at the ratchet mechanism and saw something I hadn't seen before. (Funny how you smoke a little medicinal marijuana and you suddenly see things differently and come up with new approaches that you hadn't previously thought of )

Now the problem is that the ratchet wears out and gets excessively sloppy which causes poor shifting, and sometimes impossible shifting depending on how badly it is worn. My particular problem was that I couldn't get the shifter itself tight enough against the gear box to remove any of the slop that has developed. Looking at the mechanism sober, "F*#k. What am I going to do?" Looking at it stoned, "Dude! Just put a small pry bar inside the inspection cover, wrap a ratchet strap around the engine and tighten it over the pry bar forcing the ratchet shift spline all the way against the gearbox cover!"

I then took a trip down to Ace Hardware and found some 1" ID x 1 1/2"OD machine bushes. I picked up 2 - 18g bushes and 1 -14g bush. They were still a hair too small ID to fit over the shifter splines, so I took my drill and a 3/8" drill bit and just slowly reamed out the ID on the bushes until they slid freely over the spline without being sloppy. I ended up only using 1 -18g bush for this job and it was less than $3 for all 3 of them.

After reaming the bush big enough to fit over the splines, I was ready to reattach the shifter. I took a large deep socket (I believe 24mm) with my left hand forced the shift lever against the gearbox and bush as tight as I could. I then used my right hand to retighten the shift lever with my cordless impact.

The results were satisfactory. Sure, there is still a little bit of play, but the shifts are MUCH cleaner and firmer. But the best part is that I was able to do this mod in about 15 minutes for only a couple of dollars, as opposed to ordering a new ratchet assembly from England.

I'm definitely not a "pot head" but I do enjoy my MMJ. And your right about how it effects everyone differently. Personally my brain goes a million miles a minute, the MMJ helps slow it down and allows me to think things more thoroughly. But my prescription is mainly for pain control. Both of my knees are junk and I have scoliosis which is inherently getting worse. I used be 6'2" tall, about a year ago I was 6'1" and last month I was only 6'.

You need it do it instantly like I did. On a Sunday ride, I went over the handlebars and landed square on top of my head. Over an inch lost instantly! Just squashed my whole spine. The best part is, it didn't shorten my legs any more and it has never bothered me with any pain! Broke my hand bone to my little finger. Went back to work on my regular schedule on Wednesday toting Computers and such around all day. I was working IT at Disneyland at the time. Still haven't regained any height, though. Maybe even shorter still. That was in December '99. Another case of motorcycle therapy! It did take a couple of weeks without riding as the cast on my left hand was somewhat in the way.Bare

Great photos and fix. When I installed the right-foot shift on my 4-speed gearbox, I encountered a neutral between each shift. After two months of fettling, I stumbled across your method of installing washers or spacers. On my version though, I installed the washer between the bell-crank and the inner gearbox cover. In my situation, the bell-crank was not protruding far enough into the gearbox to snugly engage the gear-operator-selector lever. The installation of the two-millimeter washer seems to have solved my false neutral problem.